Wilson, Leary in Berkeley Barb

A cover from the Berkeley Barb

Via Jesse Walker, I learned that there are searchable digital archives for the Berkeley Barb. , the prominent California underground newspaper.

My search for "Robert Anton Wilson" at the digital archive site yielded 191 hits; 189 for the Barb, and two for a publication called "The Rag." A "Timothy Leary" search provided 271 results. I had trouble getting things to work today; I wonder if the servers have become overloaded because the site has been publicized.

This is kind of a nice illustration, by the way, in the difference between "closed" research materials and open materials. I could obtain digital copies of Robert Shea's fanzines from the University of Michigan and get them posted, both on my site and the official Robert Shea site; and  I can't easily go through the archival materials on Leary at the New York Public Library. I can run searches for RAW in the Berkeley Barb; it will be awhile before I can make it to the Ransom Center's RAW correspondence with Hugh Kenner.